Twisted By Choice

Starting and Finishing (eventually)

2007-11-11T16:26:00.000-08:00

We all seem to have projects that take us forever to finish and, occasionally, others that are created with a specific imminent deadline that actually are completed to meet that deadline. For me knitting projects are more likely to fall into the first category. (This is not the case for certain members of TBC members who are much more diligent knitters than I.) Weaving projects seem to take longer in the design phase but once on the loom, the actual weaving goes more quickly.
I completed two projects in October - one in each category. The first was The Bees and Ladybugs sweater set for Rusty's granddaughter (when I started the project it was for a grandchild, gender not yet known, so this pattern appealed to me as being OK for either a baby girl or boy).

It went with me on my travels this summer, a very portable project with enough variation to keep up my interest. However, the fairisle pattern was challenging and the sections that required knitting with three colours in a row were very slow to knit. I now see that my LYS is offering a class in fairisle knitting - where was that 6 months ago!
At the beginning of October I decided I wanted to weave something to donate to the United Way silent auction at my workplace. I thought that having a deadline to meet would force me to finally use some the bamboo yarn that I had been collecting in my stash for the past couple of years. I picked a design of Pat Boswell's from the Weavers Book of 8 Shaft Patterns (one that had also been used by the GVWSG for their bamboo sample for the GCW swatch collection and also a scarf purchased by Amber's husband Amethyst at the Peace Arch Guild show and sale. The loom was warped on October 19/20 and I finished twisting the fringe while handing out the Halloween candy on the 31st. When the auction concluded on November 8th, I has happy to see the scarf go to a colleague who was taken with it's softness and lustre and wears colours from the same palette.

Now on to finishing the magical mitered vest and starting the FATCards! When are they due? I think I need a deadline.

Jade

Still here...

2007-11-11T10:41:00.000-08:00

We haven't fallen off the face of the earth or got swallowed up by our fibre stash. I think everyone has been busy with our respective projects and family stuff.

FATC/TBC 1st Annual Fibre Artist Trading Card Swap

2007-09-22T15:46:00.000-07:00

Ok!

It sounds like everyone is interested in the swap. Rose, you have to do this too...this will give us a perfect number 6 participants.

Swap date to be determine sometime in December?

Rules:

1. Card size - 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" (64mm x 89mm).

2. Can be made out of anything and embellished with anything. Silk fusion has
been discussed, felting, paper, fabric etc - whatever you want, using whatever
technique you want.

3. Name, date, & other pertinent info on the back of the cards.

4. They're not for sale - not that any of us will sell ours.

5. Each person makes 6 cards and trade 5.

Here are some links for ideas:

http://www.quiltingarts.com/cgi-bin/se/exec/search.cgi?search=atc&skin=

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist_trading_cards

http://www.artist-trading-cards.ch/index.html

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cr_quilting_instructions/article/0,1789,HGTV_3302_40091
00,00.html

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/129657022XvSWbK

http://www.joycehartley.com/atcs.html

http://www.carolynbrady.com/atc.html

Sock Day Part 2

2007-04-06T14:32:00.000-07:00

So remember that sock yarn from a way long ago. Some of it has actually been transformed into socks! Take a look:

Here are Rose's socks (with a little help from Mum)

and here are Teal's:

And here are Jade's:

Now Lavender needs to show us hers and then we need to get Amber and Rusty started on theirs!

Silk Paint day

2006-11-13T14:11:00.000-08:00

The Twisted By Choice had all our members in one Province and decided to try silk painting. While I was just a spectator for this event, I thought I would share some of the pictures. The colours in the photos are absolutely brilliant, Jade! The finished scarves were equally bright and colourful. I'm not sure what dyes/paints/metods were used but maybe someone more knowledgeable could elaborate?

Trials and tribulations of a city girl gone country aka Diary from a Prairie girl

2006-06-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

Trials and tribulations of a city girl gone country aka Diary from a Prairie girl

My name is Rose and I have a problem.
Last summer I told my colleagues I was quitting to become a livestock farmer in Saskatoon, they laughed and didn't believe me. My fibre buddies believed me.
Now I have 12 adult cashmere goats, 19 kids, 2 alpacas, 3 livestock dogs (to look after them all), 2 rescue ferrets, one guinea pig (found by the side of the road) and one long suffering husband, not necessarily in that order.
It has been a real learning curve as a) I am a city girl, b) I know nothing about real Winters (UK and Vancouver, 3" of snow for 4 days is a bad winter) and c) I have never had livestock before. That being said I have survived with all my fingers and toes and take less for granted. I never realised having one's mail delivered and one's garbage collected was a luxury! Occasionally the power goes off and then the well doesn't work, that still pushes me over the edge.
Over the last few months I have learnt many things....
Electric fencing is wonderful, things stay where you put them. I am wondering why there is not a child/teenager version.
A PO BOX is not a real address according to my bank and they seized my funds. Took me over 6 months to explain that just because I lived off a gravel road with no name I exist, honest.
Before everything freezes decide if you want the canopy on the truck and things on or in the ground. Once it freezes it is too late. My husband proved this point to me by bending an iron bar trying to leaver up the tiniest fork in the ground.
There is difference between 'natural' ice and 'artificial' ice.
It is possible to survive living over 40km away from the nearest Starbucks (hyperventilating). I wonder if there is a support group?
On the brighter side I have my robotic vacuum and it is wonderful. Works really well on hardwood floor.

Sock Day!

2006-06-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how it all started. One day, the group of us were sitting around the Clubhouse and decided it would be fun to paint our own self patterning sock yarns. And with our usual reserve and careful attention to details (NOT!) we jumped in and planned a special sock yarn day.

The day was cold but not raining. We met at the Clubhouse early-ish and planned our next step...to set up the workspace (Teal's garage) so that we wouldn't get dye everywhere. Things had to be covered with plastic. Tables had to be moved and set up. A good idea was to raise the tables up to our working height to minimize bending over all day. (Some of us were at a Nuno Felting workshop the day before and found it hard working over low tables.) The yarn needed to be pre-soaked in vinegar and water.

Jade's husband had very kindly made the two jigs. A marvelous piece of woodworking...except he forgot that we were not that adept in putting the pieces together. It took a couple of tries before we got the arms of the jig matched up and ready to go. The two jigs were finally set up and we were ready for warping (or would that be jigging?? - Teal).

The next challenge was to get the wet skeins warped onto the jigs. We thought the wool would soak more thoroughly if left in skein form but it would be a challenge to wind wet yarn around the jigs. A swift was set up and more time was spent trying to figure out how to put the wet wool on the swift without ruining the wood. Plastic cling wrap was an option but not practical. It was funny watching us trying to wrap plastic cling wrap around the arms. Rose came up with the idea of using a plastic garbage bag which worked wonderfully.

We were FINALLY ready to paint! The first two skeins were finally ready for steaming by 4pm! A total of six hours had gone by! The next couple of batches went much faster but it was still close to midnight by the time the last skein was done.

It took such a long time because of a few unexpected problems - setting up the jig, wrapping the swift, and mixing just the right shade of brown for Rusty. The dyes ran as we took the yarn off the jig. No matter how careful we tried to keep the yarn leveled, the dye still ran. One solution was to set it a bit with the hair dryer.

The yarn was wrapped with industrial size cling wrap and rolled up to fit on an old pizza tray for steaming.

I really wish we had a picture of us trying to pull all the plastic off the yarn. It was like unstuffing sausages! This was result of a very full day...six skeins of brightly painted yarn!

Lavender's note:

The effect I were hoping was a fairisle repeat but that didn't happen with the dyes running into each other. I did get repeating stripes. While it wasn't planned, the stripes repeated itself fairly evenly on both socks when knitted up. The pattern is Elann's Toe-Up Chevron socks.

Nuno Felted Vest

2006-04-11T18:55:00.000-07:00

Teal, Rose, and Jade spent a full day at the recent Fibrefest in Abbotsford (forgoing valuable shopping time!)participating in the Nuno Felted Vest workshop instructed by Ayami Stryck from Cortes Island. Ayami studied Arts and Textile design at Kyushu Sangyou University in Japan and then worked in clothing design for 5 years before moving to Canada. An accomplished dyer (in Vancouver she worked as a dyeing specialist for Dagoli) weaver and spinner and is now a member of the Cortes Island Spinners and Weavers Guild since moving to her new home.

We spent the morning listening to Ayami explain the process and material requirements and watching her demonstrate the techniques. We picked the colours of our rovings as Ayami distributed the precut silk georgette vests and bags of special fibres (silk, nylon, mohair locks, hemp, etc) that we could use for embellishment.
After a quick lunch to fortify ourselves for the work ahead (darn the vendor booths were still closed so no quick shopping fix) we return to our tables that were covered in a towel and a sheet of bubble wrap and started to lay out our fibre on the vest.

This is Rose's vest - she choose a whole new colour palette
Hot soapy water was poured over the vests which were covered in a sheet of clear plastic and then gently rubbed to begin the felting process. All the edges of the vest were finished except those on the side seams, which were left open.

Then with Ayami's help we added more fibre to fill in the side seams allowing the one size vest to accommodate a variety of body sizes.

Once the side seams had been added it was time for the serious felting! With the plastic on the inside we rolled the vest in the bubble wrap around a piece small round piece of foam (think swimming noodle) and covered all in our towel and started rolling and rolling. And rolling and rolling. Once we were satisfied that the vest was properly fulled we washed the vest in a hot water in the sink followed by a cold water rinse. And here they are:

We're Hooked

2006-03-24T09:17:00.000-08:00

While strolling the exhibits at the 2005 Black Sheep Gathering, Teal, Rose and Jade were awed by several small rugs in dazzling colours hanging in the Elemental Affects booth. We were intrigued when Jeane deCoster explained that the rugs were made using a technique called Austrailian Locker Hooking using a specially designed metal hook that looks like a crochet hook at one end and a darning needle at the other, rug hooking canvas, painted roving or combed fleece, and odd bits of yarn. Loops of the roving are pulled through the squares in the canvas with the crochet hook end and then locked in place by pulling a length of yarn threaded through the needle end through the loops. Jeane showed us one small rug with rows of brightly hand dyed roving that she said she'd done in a fews hours while watching TV. "A great way to use up your left over dyed rovings and yarn from other projects". And when we touched them we were impressed by how soft and bouncy they were, wonderful under foot beside the bed on a cold winter morning or to greet you at the door. We were sold; fast, low tech, minimal equipment, portable and inexpensive. The locker hooks can be purchased for about $5 - $8 (finding them locally is more of a problem). The canvas was about $5/yard (this was Oregon, remember). Plus another way for us to play with colour and fibre and you know how we feel about colour and fibre! We found this a relatively easy craft to pick up from the printed instructions Jeane provided. Another site with history and good illustrations is from Mother Earth News. However, our experience has been shown that two months (or more) is a better estimate of how long it takes us to complete a 24" x 40" rug.

Here Teal's current project in process.

This is Jade's first rug.

Teal's first rug that now lies inside her family room patio door and compliments the family room area rug.

Jade's second rug combines painted rovings in the background and immersion dyed and natural roving in the Greek Key border.

As Amber and Lavender have acquired the tools for locker hooking we hope to post exmples of their work and Rose's at a later time. However, there have been rumblings that they may try felted knit rugs next. We are also pleased to see that this fibre art is attracting more interest and note that workshops are being offered this spring at Black Sheep Gathering and NW Handspun Yarns in Bellingham. Closer to home for those in the lower mainland Shan’s Needleworks, #31 – 8th Avenue, New Westminster, Tel: 604-807-2729 has locker hooking supplies and a class teaching the technique but with fabric strips rather than roving.

What's Next?

2006-03-18T11:13:00.000-08:00

Ok! Let's see what's next for the Twisted By Choice fibre crazed gals!

March 31st - Fibre Festival at Tradex in Abbotsford. This runs from Fri, Mar 31 to Sat, April 1st. We're planning on going on Friday. Some of us have workshops and some of us are planning to shop 'til we drop!

Sat, April 1st - Sock yarn painting fun at the Clubhouse. Jade's hubby has kindly made us a jig for painting yarns. It should be interesting to see how much paint actually gets on the yarn (and not us).

Sun, April 2nd - Glass Bead workshop - Amber has organized a glass bead making workshop for us. If our beads turns out a fraction of what the sample looked like, we'll be thrilled. I know I'm really excited...this is something I've always wanted to try. I really needed a new hobby. yeah.

Mar 31 - April 9 - Festival of the Arts in Port Moody Civic Centre Galleria. The theme this year is Vessels and some of us have submitted items for this display.

Sun, April 9th - Spin In at the Port Moody Civic Centre. I'm not sure how much actual spinning is done at these functions but it's always fun to see what everyone else is working on, catch up with old friends and make new ones.

June 23-25 - Black Sheep Gathering It sounds like there will be a road trip to Black Sheep again this year. Some of us are still deciding. The group who attended last year came back with horror stories of being in a barn full of fleece (350 give or take) and was only allowed (by Jade) to pick ONE!!

Did I forget anything?

-Lavender

Knitting Olympics

2006-02-26T20:29:00.000-08:00

As of Friday night, I was short about 3 hats to finish. But today, the final count is 18!! Yes, 18 HATS! The last one was cast on during the car ride out to Vancouver to watch the Closing Ceremonies at the Vancouver Library Square. And I finished binding off just as the Olympic flag was handed over to Mr. Mayor of Vancouver - Sam Sullivan. That's 2 hats over my goal of 16!

I decided to knit a few extra hats when I found I had leftover time because some of the hats looked a bit odd. It was more a design feature (like the flat top hat...what was I thinking?!) Anyhow, it's all good...the real winners here will be the kids these hats will be going to, right?

Perhaps the whole idea of the Knitting Olympics started as a whim on Yarn Harlot part but it was so well-received by knitters all around the world. Over 4000 knitters gave their personal best during the 16 day Olympic event. At the lighting of the torch, knitters cast on their projects. The only goal is to finish whatever we set out for ourselves by the end of the closing ceremonies.

I've participated in Knit-alongs before but nothing like this. I have to admit that if it wasn't for the fact that I had publicly committed myself, I would not have finished this many hats. It was a lot of fun reading what challenges other knitters were facing.

And like the other Olympic, there were teams from all over the world (and teams for just about any reason to knit). Team Canada had several get-togethers for the opening and closing ceremonies. From the pics folks have posted, a good time was had by all.

This was a lot of fun and I thank the Yarn Harlot and her team for organizing the Knitting Olympics and the organizers of Team Canada for giving us a cyberplace to meet. It was a great feeling to be part of something this big.

I hope to see everyone in the 2010 Knitting Olympics. It will be held right here in my backyard (practically).

Happy Knitting!
Lavender

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

2006-02-03T10:28:00.000-08:00

This is Lavender's concept brought to life by Teal.

Lavender expressed a wish for a treadle on her carder - she wanted something slower than an electric carder that would leave her hands free for teasing and feeding the fibre. Teal likes to play with ideas and thought Lavender had come up with something really great to play with(with which to play?).

So the experiments began. Both Lavender and Teal have Patrick Green's "Beverly " carder. Great carders!

THIS IS THE DISCLAIMER!! PLEASE DO NOT TRY THIS EXPERIMENT AT HOME! It may lead to permanent damage of your equipment and your psyche!!!!

Having said that, I'll tell you what we did so you can improve on the concept, because it does seem easier than hand cranking. The handle was removed from the crank shaft. The "Beverly" comes with a second BLENDING wheel and this blending wheel was placed on the crank shaft(a very tiny amount of long wool fibre was added for traction). This is one of the areas that may be problematic. The fibres were wrapped around the out side of the shaft from one side to the other and then fed through the holes on the side of the shaft and out the hole on the end of the shaft(I would draw you a diagram - but I'm new to blogging and don't know how). The blending wheel was pushed snuggly over the fibre to fit without slipping. Note of caution: We have not yet determined if we will be able to get this wheel off the crank shaft or if the stress of the drive band will damage the wheel.

The carder was then supported on the top of a treadle sewing machine( with a board to prevent it falling into the machine well) and a drive band of candle wicking was used to go around the carder wheel and treadle wheel.

That's the basics.

Suggestion for improvements:

-it might work better if the carder was set on a board attached directly to the treadle frame as the cabinet is interfering with the smooth flow of the belt which makes it harder to treadle and also wears out the belt

- we are also looking for better belting material. Our first choice would be a material similar to the drive bands that come with the carder - but we haven't found a local source yet.

-we put a large wide elastic band around the blending wheel(before attaching the drive band) to increase traction and protect the blending wheel from some of the wear caused by the drive band

It is handy to sit and treadle your way through a fleece or pound of colour. However, the current set up requires that only small amounts of well teased fibre are put through the carder - which is great for our colour blending since most of it has already been through the carder 5-7 times. This experiment is working well for our purposes now. I would want to be able to make the improvements listed above before using it for all my carding needs.

Oh yes, I was serious about the disclaimer - my blending wheel appears stuck on the crank shaft - I'm assuming it will come off with some lubrication - but I need it where it is for just now.

Let us know if you have any suggestions for improvments. We are also interested in knowing how those of you with electric carders find them. We have tried the supercarder but are wondering about the "Fancy Carder" and some of the electric conversions for the "Beverly" etc.

Happy Experiments,

Teal

The Project

2006-02-02T17:36:00.000-08:00

Last March we embarked upon a project to further our understanding of colour theory and how it applies to our fibre work, specifically blending colour for spinning. The works of Deb Menz and others inspired this project. Two of our members, Teal and Rose, were the planners, the rest of us followed along. We all expected that this to be a BIG PROJECT that would take us the Spring and maybe the Summer to finish. BIG MISTAKE! 11 months and counting we are maybe half to three quarters finished.

We got underway one Saturday. We arrived at the Art Centre, as we often do, in convoy, laden down with 8 lbs of Perendale fleece, Ciba (washfast acid) Dyes, dye pots, hot plates, butane stoves, acetic acid, gloves, masks, etc.

About seven hours later we emerged with one pound each of wet fleece in each of the following colours: scarlet, blue, turquoise, magenta, yellow, golden yellow, and black. One pound was left undyed white. In the process we practically emptied the Art Centre. Apparently some people don't have the same affection for the aroma of seven acid dye pots full of wet wool as we do.

Then we started carding, and carding and carding. Do you know how long it takes to pick and card a pound of dyed roving? A lonnnng time.

Once we had bags of carded bats of each of our original colours, the blending and the MATH started. Through the summer and the fall we produced bags of bats of our warm and cool blended primaries; blue, red and yellow.

Next we embarked upon blending our secondaries:

Orange(Golden yellow and Scarlet)
Green(Yellow and Turquoise)
Violet(Magenta and blue) (this one via Saskatchewan)

And now on to the tertiaries! And we thought the math was hard before.

Now we just nodded confidentially as Teal told us how much of each secondary to weigh out on the scale.

Here is where we are at today; finished all but two tertiaries.

Red-Orange(BlendedRed-Orange)Yellow-Orange (Blended Yellow-Orange)
Red-Violet (Blended Red-Violet) Yellow-Green (Blended Yellow-Green) Blue-Violet (Blended Blue-Violet)Blue-Green (Blended Blue-Green)

Jade

Twisted

2006-01-28T15:43:00.000-08:00

Hi Gang!

The Twisted By Choice have now arrived in the cyberworld. Heh! Our very own blog!

We now have a place to post pictures and talk about all our fibre-y interests (and other stuff).

Please feel free to muck around here and change the template or whatever. I just picked the first one.

By the way, I needed an email address to create this blog. We also have an email address on Hotmail - Twisted_By_Choice@hotmail.com

Sorry this first post is not very exciting.

Lavender.